UHC Partners With AVIA For 2nd Annual Innovation Competition

CHICAGO, Oct. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- UHC and AVIA have partnered to launch the 2^nd Annual UHC Startup Challenge: Innovation Delivered, a competition which provides five digital health care startups the opportunity to pitch a new health care innovation in front of a live audience for a chance to win a $10,000 grand prize.

The five presenting companies were selected through collaboration with UHC, a Chicago-based consortium of 118 leading academic medical centers and over 300 of their affiliated hospitals, and AVIA, the innovation accelerator for health care providers. 

Each entrepreneur must prove their innovation is most beneficial to the health care industry and be judged by more than 1,800 health care professionals at "Revolution," UHC's 2014 Annual Conference, which will take place October 23-24 in Las Vegas. A panel of health care experts will moderate questions from the conference audience of leaders from the nation's academic medical centers. Audience votes will be tabulated in real-time with the winner being announced at the conclusion of the competition. The winning company will receive the grand prize, along with advisory support from AVIA and UHC.

"These five companies have the potential to make unprecedented improvements to how healthcare is delivered in America," said Linda Finkel president of AVIA. "We're very excited to see each of them in action at Revolution." 

"We're pleased to co-host the 2014 UHC Startup Challenge with AVIA," said Irene M. Thompson, UHC's president and chief executive officer. "The UHC Startup Challenge showcases the newest advancements in our industry, and sparks more ideas to transform health care. Through platforms like this competition, we continue to collaborate with our members to drive the revolution in health care."

"As with the first competition, we're committed to continuing to foster the adoption of innovative new products with the potential to revolutionize health care," Finkel added.

The five digital health care finalists include:

• CaptureProof: a HIPAA compliant solution for patients and clinicians to track healing progress and communicate through sharing of photos, videos and notes with the entire team.
• Pervasive
Health: presenting Apervita, a secure self-service platform-as-a-service that enables any health professional to connect health datasets, author evidence-based algorithms, protocols, guidelines, and measures, share them, and publish to a marketplace.
• RightCare Solutions: RightCare software, which assesses the risk and needs for all patients at admission, recommends the right level of post-acute care and applicable community-based services, automates referrals to post-acute care providers, and enables in-depth tracking and monitoring of high-risk patients across the continuum of care, including in the home.
• Skylight Healthcare Systems: a platform that engages and empowers the patient while addressing the hospitals' needs in clinical efficiency, IT integration, and patient experience.
• Wisercare: a patented, private online experience that incorporates a patient's clinical situation and personal values, WiserCare generates personalized, evidence-based guidance on what treatment options fit best.

About AVIA
AVIA is a provider-led innovation accelerator. AVIA addresses healthcare's most pressing challenges by working with provider organizations to identify and implement the best emerging tech-enabled solutions, at scale. AVIA's Innovator Network offers providers a higher probability of success and a quicker path to impact. For more information, please visit: http://aviahealthinnovation.com.

About UHC
UHC is an alliance of the nation's leading nonprofit academic medical centers, which are focused on delivering world-class patient care. Formed in 1984 and based in Chicago, IL UHC fosters collaboration with and among its 118 academic medical center and 310 affiliated hospital members through its renowned solutions in the areas of performance improvement, comparative data and analytics, supply chain management, strategic research, and public policy. UHC helps its members achieve excellence in quality, safety, and cost-effectiveness. UHC's membership includes the leading nonprofit academic medical centers in the United States. For more information, please visit https://www.uhc.edu.

SOURCE UHC